Jets of green light (Was: Accidental Harrycrux with a Bloodsucking Snake)

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 155284


> Distaiyi:
> <snip> 
> > A Chekhov's Gun is a Literary technique in which a fictional element
> (object, character, place, etc.) is introduced early and in which the
> author expects the reader to invest. That investment must 'pay off'
> later in the story even if the element disappears offstage for a long
> interval.


> Carol:
<snip>
> I'm not sure about "wants the reader to invest," but I can think of a
> number of objects and people that have been introduced but have not
> yet played a significant role. I expect Aberforth, Dedalus Diggle, and
> possibly Ragnok the goblin to fall into this category.... Or do
these people,
> objects, and places (well, place) not count because the reader has no
> emotional investment in them?

Sydney:

The Chekhov is Anton Chekhov the playwright (Cherry Orchard, etc.). 
He was always happy to expound on his theories of drama and the 'gun
on the wall' was a favorite example.  The most concise quotation is:
"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the
wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If
it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

Often the corollary is added, that if a gun is going to go off in the
third act, you must hang it on the wall in the first.  "Hanging the
gun on the wall" is a common shorthand in the film industry, as in,
"We need to hang that gun on the wall somewhere, is we're going to use
his girlfriend leaving him as a complication", or something like that.

I'd say the distinguishing characteristic of a 'Chekhov gun' is not so
much emotional investment as that it involves tension creation and
tension release.  A gun is an obvious object that creates tension (as
Godard put it, "all you need for a movie is a girl and gun");  I'd add
unsolved questions as another type of 'gun' in that they pull the
reader forward through the story with an expectation of a bang.

The most obvious example I can think of is in GoF, the 'gun is hung on
the wall' of Voldemort's mysterious plan;  the gun goes off in the
final chapters.

-- Sydney, back from the deeeeead!